How to shoot log in high bitrates on your iPhone

As long as you have a new iPhone 7, amongst an impressive raft of other features the latest release of Filmic Pro adds the ability to shoot log on your iOS device.

Filmic Pro is an iPhone app that allows iPhone users to take much greater control over the in camera phone when shooting video than the very limited standard iPhone app allows. It is perhaps most famous for being the app that helped make the iPhone-shot, micro-budget comedy drama ‘Tangerine’, about two transgender prostitutes in LA, a reality.

For those unfamiliar with it, FiLMiC’s app provides lots of important new features that make iPhone shooting more viable such as increased bitrates (up to 100Mbps) and greater manual control over aspects such as white balance, focus, shutter angle, and iso. You can also turn off the automatic gain control for the audio. There is support for different aspect ratios, you can do variable speed targeted zooms and focus pulls, plus, of course, you have the means to set various frame rates too, including 24fps.

The just released Version 6 of Filmic Pro now brings Log Gamma to the iPhone for the first time alongside a host of other upgrades. The new log mode only works on the iPhone 7 and 7 plus and is an additional in-app purchase, but it is a big breakthrough in iPhone videography as log was once the exclusive domain of some extremely high-end cameras such as the ARRI Alexa.

The idea behind log, of course, is that a flatter picture profile will give greater latitude in the image allowing you to grade the image at a later date more easily. Happily, hot on the heels of the new Filmic Pro release, a new version of Film Convert has been unveiled that will have specific support for the Log Gamma from Filmic Pro, making it even easier to work with.

The open nature of mobile phone cameras that can be controlled just by software in this way means that mobile cinematography keeps making huge leaps and bounds just from advancements in that software. It brings all the advantages of small size unobtrusiveness and USB charging too, but, of course, you can't easily escape the internal fixed focal length optics built into the camera which are always there — even with add-on lenses. The software gets more and more advanced but the hardware limitations remain.

All the same, those advancements in the software mean that such technology will find its uses and its advocates. And with three new shooting modes — full-on manual, drag and drop of focus and exposure control, and a hybrid mode that lets you select what combination you want — live analytics, an imaging panel and more, for $14.99 (and an extra $9.99 for the log ability) Filmic Pro makes some very powerful arguments.

Freya Black is a Freelance writer, director, cinematographer and artist based in the UK, (the land of cold winters and rainy days). She believes cinematography is all about creating magic through light. Her all time favorite film is "Freaks" by Todd Browning. Freya is a big fan of chocolate, owls and the night.